Aircraft Maintenance Plans –Specific modification requirements for an Aircraft

The aircraft is maintained by a maintenance plan and the plan is specifically tailored to that specific aircraft.

A company that operates multiple aircraft of the same type will have a majority of the maintenance plan commonly the same, but there are factors that influence the maintenance plan which means that each aircraft has its own specific plan.

If you look at a list of tasks for example in,then maintenance plan then there is often an “Applicability” column and registrations,or serial numbers are included so you can see which aircraft the tasks are for in the event that multiple aircraft are covered.

Some of the factors that can affect the plan are structural repairs and modifications for example. A repair once carried out will have an instruction for continued airworthiness (ICA) that may not now fall in line with the existing schedule, therefor a task is now additionally required, or has a different interval and or threshold for example.

A modification or supplemental type certificate (STC) is a change incorporated to the aircraft and it will also have its own ICA. The important part to be aware of is that this can possible always apply to the aircraft. Consider if we install a new antenna and cut access holes and alter structure; then several years later we don’t want it and we remove it. The modification was still carried out according to work instructions –just because the modificationis removed the structureand access created remains.

That is why modifications and STC carried out should be always considered when reviewing the maintenance plan, regardless of their status as it could have requirements for inspections and or tasks that are not in line with the aircraft maintenance plan from the manufacturer.

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